April 13, 2014 7:00pm

The Spanish couple had told me about a bike shop in Kempsey that was a warm showers host and also had a Surly Moonlander fat bike on the floor. I had wanted to see one of these up close so it seemed like a good idea to head for Kempsey. I took my time riding the 65k to the town and even stopped to cook lunch at a rest stop along the way. When leaving the rest stop and racing across the highway to head South, my rear wheel slipped out from under the bike. The valve stem somehow tore off and the tube blew just as I was making the mad dash across traffic. It was a pretty close call but could have been worse if I had been clocking 45kph downhill when it decided to blow out. The tube was shot so I installed my last tube and made a note to purchase two new ones at the bike shop. I pulled into Kempsey around 2:30pm and realized that it was Sunday by the lack of open businesses. I did find the bike shop but it too was closed so I cycled out of town towards the next rest area. When I got there, I noticed a large sign “No Camping, by order of bla bla bla” first time I had seen one of these on the entire trip but it looked like they really meant business by the size of the sign. By now it was beginning to get late and I worried a little about finding a suitable tent site. Then I rode up to a run down 1950ish sort of caravan park with a sign advertising low tariffs (that’s Aussie for rates). I biked in and asked how much for an unpowered tent site. The woman manager said “ten dollars” so I figured I had lucked out. When I went to pay with a pocket full of Australian coins and fumbled around in a feeble attempt at counting the weird shaped coins, the woman reached over and scooted the coins into a few piles exclaiming “you have eight dollars and eighty five cents here”. When I reached for my billfold, she just raked the coins into a pile and said “good enough” and handed me the key to the shower room. The showers were very clean and there was plenty of hot water so I figured for $8.85 I got a pretty good deal. I spent a total of $9.85 today because I had to fill up the gasoline stove bottle. That cost $1.00. I am running low on food so tomorrow I’ll find a Woolworths or Coles and stock up. I stopped at the McDonalds just outside Nambucca Heads to email Luc. Didn’t buy anything because the lines were too long but I used the WiFi anyway. This wasn’t the most exciting day of my life and the scenery was just rolling hills and grassland. I am snug in my tent at the moment and tomorrow is another day. There is now about 475k until Sydney. Australians drive on the wrong side of the road and talk weird but they seem very friendly.

I feel comfortable in Australia and it has been years since I’ve felt comfortable. If the right opportunity were to arise, I wouldn’t be opposed to emigrating here.